A Pair of ACe's on a Sunday Evening

With the sun out, a Sunday evening drive seemed appropriate. Even though there were no westbounds showing on ATCS when I fired it up after the Vikings game, Mrs. L4T and I still planned on a bit of sightseeing. Our plans were hastened when all of a sudden, the computer showed a coal empty pulling out of Staples yard. We were off.

After missing the train in Verndale, and having to chase him back through Wadena, the best option for a shot seemed to be somewhere a bit of color could be included in the shot. That brief period of autumn featuring vibrant colors is already too far along without any shots to show for it. So as we cruised west, one eye was watching for colorful foliage.

A likely spot popped up near the Deer Creek cutoff, and we had built up enough of a lead on the train to get across the tracks so we were on the sunny side. Here's what I came up with:


With no other westbounds showing, I figured we were done for the night. But after stopping at the store, I took one more look at the computer display and was surprised again, as a train was just coming off the Brainerd Sub and was lined up to go straight west. Off to Verndale it was.

Arriving with plenty of time to spare, the next surprise was an eastbound manifest. Since I was waiting anyway, why not try a shot? Here it is.


The eastbound met the coal empty near the west edge of Verndale. This is probably the most acceptable shot of our second ACe-led coal empty of the evening.


I also shot the ACe that was DPU, but didn't post that photo here.

One more train had crept into the picture, but he was just getting to Philbrook and we were running out of light. We headed for home with a pair of ACe's to show for another enjoyable evening of railfanning.

Jim